Surgical apparatuses for suturing have been disclosed in various embodiments. There usually is an instrument that can be used to drive a needle, to which the thread has been attached, through the tissue to be sutured, whereupon the needle together with the thread can be pulled through the produced tissue channel, and so the thread is presented for the subsequent ligating. Here the front end of the needle that has been pushed through the tissue is held by a suitable clamping instrument. By way of example, such a suturing apparatus is disclosed in WO 92/12674 A1.
A surgical apparatus of the type mentioned at the outset has been disclosed in EP 1 306 056 B1. A needle can be displaced between a retracted position and an advanced position, in which it crosses a jaw opening in a jaw part of the instrument and protrudes through a passage opening in the jaw part situated distally from the jaw opening. The needle has a type of barbed hook that, when said needle is subsequently retracted, is used to carry along a loop of the thread that crosses the jaw opening in the jaw part, and so the needle constitutes a thread carrier. One of the two thread ends can subsequently be pulled through the tissue, whereupon the thread is presented for the subsequent ligating. A disadvantage of this apparatus is the relatively complicated handling. Furthermore, an appropriate size of the channel produced in the tissue is required for pulling back the needle with the hooked-in thread loop, and this leads to a corresponding injury.
A further surgical apparatus of the type mentioned at the outset has been disclosed in one of the exemplary embodiments described in WO 02/07609 A2. Here, an armoring part has been fixed to the end of the thread, the former being designed as a needle tip, which is carried along by the thread carrier when said thread carrier is displaced into its advanced position from its retracted position. A section of the jaw part situated distally from the jaw opening is, on its end side, designed with a snap-lock mechanism for the armoring part, which snap-lock mechanism is made of fork-like projections at the end of the jaw part. After pressing the armoring part through the passage opening, said armoring part is secured against being retracted by this snap-lock mechanism.